Kaweewat Siwanartwong

Bangkok’s dining scene never ceases to impress with new restaurants constantly adding fresh energy to the city’s vibrant food landscape. While elegant fine dining establishments often steal the spotlight with their refined menus and impeccable presentation, casual eateries play an equally important role in shaping the city’s culinary identity. From bustling street-side stalls to trendy bistros, these spots capture the capital’s lively spirit through bold flavours, creative concepts and inviting atmospheres. If you’re planning a romantic evening for two, a laid-back family dinner or even a solo food adventure, there’s no shortage of exciting options. The city’s diverse culinary landscape continues to expand, offering everything from Cantonese and French delicacies to comforting Burmese dishes. Whether you’re drawn to modern fusion cuisine or timeless classics, there’s always something new to discover. Discover, book, and save at hundreds of restaurants with Grab Dine Out. Enjoy exclusive discounts, use dining vouchers, and make instant reservations, all in the Grab app. Explore Grab Dine Out now.

From stomach-filling Western classics to quick Thai favourites, here’s our list of places you can fill up for the day.  RECOMMENDED: The best new restaurants that opened this year   Discover, book, and save at hundreds of restaurants with Grab Dine Out. Enjoy exclusive discounts, use dining vouchers, and make instant reservations, all in the Grab app. Explore Grab Dine Out now.

There’s been barely a drop of rain in Bangkok lately – just enough cloud to spare us the molten pavements, not enough to spoil anyone’s hair. June may have only just begun, but the city’s already burning through the month with a kind of feverish glee, refusing to do anything by halves. It kicked off with Kula Shaker, whose live show felt like a brief, euphoric time-warp – flares, fuzz, and the ghost of late-90s Britpop echoing across Lido Connect. Then came Chef Umberto Bombana’s long-anticipated return, all truffle-laced reverence and the sort of dishes that silence a room. Pawtrait drew the sentimentalists with pets-turned-muses, while Bangkok Community Pride turned up with its usual mix of defiance, sequins and joy, reminding everyone that celebration can be a form of resistance. Now, with the weekend creeping up, the energy doesn’t so much rise as roll over from the night before. There's something nearly absurd in how much is happening at once – pop-up exhibitions in Sukhumvit galleries, DJ sets bleeding into street sounds, even a tea pairing workshop that promises to soothe away the hangover you haven’t earned yet. So yes, we’re barely halfway through June. But this is a city that doesn’t do halfway. Not in heat, not in rain, and certainly not in rhythm. Get ahead of the game and start planning your month with our list of top things to do this June.

555. No, not the number – though it might as well be the punchline. It's how we laugh in Thai: ha ha ha. It’s also how Lounys, a French-Algerian artist now living in Bangkok, occasionally sneaks humour into his work – a wink to the absurd, a code-switch between languages, cultures and emotions. Born in Paris with Algerian and Berber roots, Lounys is what happens when you fold a handful of cities into one mind: New York, Los Angeles, Miami, a few stops across Europe and now Thailand. His art has appeared across Bangkok, cropping up in galleries and pop-up shows like visual outbursts – provocative, dense, unfiltered. Drawing on satirical cartoons and caricatures, Lounys sketches out modern survival as a warped spectacle. Political figures are stretched, social archetypes distorted, but always with a knowing eye. There’s something dreamlike in his method – automatic, compulsive, channelling the spirit of 1920s surrealism while humming with the colour-fuelled energy of pop art. Photograph: Lounys We asked him a few questions, naturally – about the move, the city, the sprawl of it all. He tells us he’s adapting to Bangkok, slowly. The food, the pace, the people. Bangkok: too hot to hold, too alive to ignore – just like his work.  Looking back, how would you describe the different chapters of your artistic journey so far? What felt like turning points along the way? ‘My journey’s been instinctive – no map, no mentor, just motion. One chapter was solitude, another dialogue. The sh

June arrives like a glitch in the system – a month stitched together by celebration and resistance, identity and exception. It’s the kind of moment where art feels less like decoration and more like a way of breathing.  In Bangkok, art isn’t confined to white cubes or gallery walls. It spills, glitches and stares back. The galleries don’t sleep. The warehouses flicker with light. You’ll find exhibitions in places that feel vaguely illegal and performances that seem like they’ve been dreamt up at 3am by someone who hasn't blinked in days. And maybe that’s enough: to witness, to feel, to not look away. Because art, like identity, was never meant to be tidy. Remember Lost in DOMLAND? That surrealist maze of desire and disorientation that made you feel like you'd stumbled into someone else's subconscious? Or A Cage of Fragile Heart, where tenderness became performance, and vulnerability was something to wear, not hide? That same raw energy pulses through this month’s line-up – less polished, more honest. And while Attack on Titan Final Exhibition gave us collapsing walls and the weight of legacy, and Hit the Road carved out moments of quiet rebellion, June doesn’t look back so much as it fragments forward. It isn’t neat. It doesn’t try to be. Instead, it offers a series of entry points – some loud, others almost imperceptible – into questions of selfhood, memory and what it means to be seen. There’s no single narrative, no tidy moral. Just flashes of truth, stitched together by a

Halfway through 2025 – blink and it’s June. Somehow, we’ve arrived at Pride Month, drenched in both colour and contradiction. It’s a time carved out for queerness, love-drenched, politicised and stubbornly joyful. But this isn’t a parade just for the queer community. It’s a mirror held up to everyone, reminding us that identity is messy, defiant and worth defending. Pride isn’t a party so much as a punctuation mark – a loud, necessary one. So, in a city that’s constantly shedding its skin, what does celebration look like? Bangkok, never one for subtlety, offers up a bit of everything. The Japanese invasion continues – animated and unapologetic – with Naruto The Gallery, Attack on Titan Final Exhibition and the overwhelmingly adorable 100% Doraemon and Friends Tour. Childhood nostalgia dressed as cultural diplomacy? We’re here for it. On the music front, things are getting beautifully chaotic. The Yussef Dayes Experience promises jazz with the edges left on, a kind of spiritual combustion wrapped in broken beats. Meanwhile, Kula Shaker returns, all psychedelic haze and East-meets-West mysticism. And then there’s MNDSGN, that cosmic soul wanderer, bringing his woozy grooves and unreleased material to a city that rarely pauses long enough to listen. He’s asking us to. Film lovers aren’t left out either. Lahn Mah (How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies) – arguably the most talked-about Thai feature in recent memory – gets its moment under the spotlight. It’s a family drama, yes

Some cities ease into you, like a slow morning. Bangkok doesn’t bother. It arrives all at once – humid, glaring, full of movement you can’t quite trace. Steam from a streetside grill blurs into the squeal of a tuk-tuk, incense curls past your ear, and a monk scrolls his phone with the indifference of someone who’s seen it all. The city doesn’t wait. It presses in from every side. Then, there’s Andrei Kostromskikh – better known on Instagram as Kosnio. His photographs seem less like compositions and more like accidents that knew exactly where to land. He walks the city with a camera and an eye for the nearly invisible – the things most people overlook, or choose not to see. His work doesn’t trade in landmarks or spectacle. His images aren’t postcards. They’re something quieter, more private. We find his work the way most people find anything these days – one of those algorithmic gifts the internet occasionally offers up. Naturally, we asked to share his photographs on our platform, and he generously agreed. Photograph: Kosnio When we reach out, he replies with the same understatement that marks his photos. Bangkok, he says, feels strangely familiar – not in any cosy or sentimental way, but like a half-remembered dream. Now, we asked him some questions about his journey and how he sees the capital. Photograph: Kosnio   Would you describe yourself as a visual storyteller rather than simply a photographer? ‘Yeah, I think so. I just try to catch moments that speak for themselv

June rolls in like a rush of neon, sequins and unapologetic joy – Pride is back, loud and proud. But this year carries a weight beyond the usual glitter and dancefloor confessions. Thailand marks its first legal recognition of same-sex marriage, a milestone decades in the making and a quiet revolution writ large across the city’s streets. Over 200,000 people will flood Bangkok, a tidal wave of colour and defiance, each step a statement, each flag a banner of hard-won freedom. The parade isn’t just a party – it’s a procession of resilience, love and history colliding in the most spectacular way. Photograph: Bangkok Pride From the wildest drag to the quietest moments of solidarity, this celebration stretches beyond surface-level exuberance. It’s the culmination of years spent fighting for recognition, for rights, for a space to simply exist without compromise. Bangkok’s roads become a runway of belonging, a stage for every story, every identity, every fierce truth. More than just a date on the calendar, this Pride is a declaration that love – unfiltered, untamed, in all its forms – finally has a home here. While the Bangkok Pride parade remains the highlight, the city hums with other LGBTQ+ events both before and after, making sure the celebration stretches well beyond a single day. So read on – there’s much more to discover. Photograph: Bangkok Pride When is Bangkok Pride? On Sunday June 1, Bangkok’s Pride parade returns to Rama I Road, transforming the city’s commercial s

Bangkok may be a whirlwind of energy, but it’s also home to some of the world’s most transformative spas. If the chaos of the city has you feeling frazzled, consider this your invitation to unwind in style. From traditional Thai massages to signature treatments that pamper you from head to toe, these serene sanctuaries know exactly how to melt away stress and leave you feeling like a brand-new version of yourself.

Let me confess right from the start, when the opportunity came to interview Saran Yen Panya – Thai craftsman, storyteller and creative director of 56 Studio, known for turning the mundane and the ugly into something fabulously chic – I was a little nervous. In the design world, he’s practically folklore, widely recognised by anyone even remotely in the scene. And me? My design experience is, quite literally, zero. Or perhaps at best, poetic appreciation. So sitting down with someone who spins everyday banality into cultural commentary felt… daunting. I first encountered his name in Songkhla Old Town, courtesy of a mischievous little bar titled Grandpa Never Drunk Alone (cool, right?). I’d never met the man, yet the design – instinctive, odd, quietly brilliant – struck me like a late‑night revelation. Fast‑forward and I’m on a video call, notebook poised, interviewing him for Time Out about his creative journey, Bangkok’s art ecosystem and how he reads the city’s pulse today. Saran doesn’t just call himself a storyteller. He also self-identifies as an underdog – a term loaded with defiance, humility and honesty. His worldview, personal history, social observations and even taste all stem from a place of being second-guessed – and rising anyway. Photograph: Saran Yen Panya   The three eras of Saran There’s a pleasing symmetry to how Saran narrates his life’s work: three clear-cut eras, each a slightly altered shade of the last. He calls it ‘evolving, not reinventing,’ which f

If you're the sort of person who slows down at a half-painted wall or feels personally attacked by a good curation, Bangkok will keep you busy. The city’s art scene isn’t just thriving – it’s sprawling, unpredictable and, at times, gloriously chaotic. From white-cube galleries tucked inside half-renovated shopfronts to sprawling museum halls and street corners where murals seem to bloom overnight, there’s no singular way to experience it all – and frankly, no point in trying. Alongside permanent collections and galleries are artist-run spaces and community-led studios with more personality than polish, where work is hung with nails, not pretension. Add to that a packed calendar of temporary exhibitions – changing faster than most people can update their weekend plans – and you’ll find yourself wandering into corners of the city you didn’t know existed, just to catch a film screening or a giant sculpture on Sanam Luang. And yes, it’s a lot. Too much, maybe. But that’s hardly a complaint. If anything, it's a reminder that Bangkok’s cultural life isn’t waiting for permission – it’s already happening, with or without you. We’re just here to help you keep up. Make time to wander through these exhibitions – and while you're out, take in the rest of what Bangkok has lined up this weekend. Below, you’ll find all of the free art and photography exhibitions happening in the city right now, but that’s not everything: don’t miss out on the things to do on the weekend right here. Enjoy. S

  April has arrived, marking the official start of summer. With the city’s parks and streets taking on new life, the cultural scene is also awakening. Museums and galleries across the city are gearing up for exciting exhibition openings, offering fresh and inspiring experiences for art lovers. As the temperatures rise, why not seek refuge in a cool gallery or museum? Bangkok boasts a wealth of world-class art and photography exhibitions, all available to explore without spending a satang. From contemporary photography to traditional artwork, there’s a variety of free exhibitions on offer throughout the city this month. Set aside some time to explore these exhibitions, and while you're at it, discover everything else Bangkok has to offer this weekend.Below, you’ll find all of the free art and photography exhibitions happening in the city right now, but that’s not everything: don’t miss out on the things to do on the weekend right here. Enjoy. RECOMMENDED:  The best things to do in Bangkok The best things to do this weekend  Bangkok’s best spots to live the art life Top spots to see street art

The restaurant’s latest seasonal specials arrive like a quiet sigh of relief – bright, comforting, and carefully balanced. The new menu leans into thoughtful simplicity, where each dish feels like a small story told through flavour and texture. Take reen miso salmon teishoku: tender salmon grilled in a miso-basil marinade, accompanied by fresh greens, house pickles and nutty multigrain rice, all rounded off with miso soup. Then there’s ombu-jime scallop chazuke, a delicate in-store exclusive where Hokkaido scallops, cured with kombu, meet grilled onigiri and a warm dashi broth. For dessert, Kinako Mochi Choux offers a golden, crackly crust and a pillowy inside filled with whipped cream and blueberry jam. To wash it down, mango matcha latte blends sweet mango puree with hand-whisked matcha and your choice of milk or oat – earthy and refreshing in equal measure. Jun 1 onwards. OKONOMI, Central Embassy and OKONOMI, Sukhumvit 38   

Afternoon tea, reimagined through the lens of Chiang Mai’s rich heritage, arrives in Bangkok with a quiet flourish. This collaboration captures the essence of Northern Thailand – not in grand gestures, but in the subtle details. Each bite draws from the region’s fresh farm produce, transforming traditional flavours into delicate savoury and sweet morsels that feel both familiar and surprising. Alongside freshly baked scones and house-made jam, Monsoon Tea pours warmth into the ritual. Meanwhile, SARRAN’s new jewellery collection takes its cues from Chiang Mai’s delicate flowers, offering wearable art that echoes the tea’s quiet elegance. Led by Executive Chef Korawit Rungchat, the team crafts more than a meal – it’s an invitation to slow down, savour, and soak in a little of the north’s gentle magic, all without leaving the city. Jun 16-Jun 16 2026. Starts at B2,400. Baan Borneo Club, 137 Pillars Suites and Residences Bangkok, 1pm-5pm  

The second takeover of Underhatches, promises a night where raw electronic pulses mingle with heat and movement, pulling you deep into the moment. It’s less about polished perfection and more about the sweat-soaked edges where music feels alive and unpredictable. Alongside the pounding beats, there’s a gentler pulse too – curated cocktails designed to melt into the ambient energy, creating pockets of calm amid the chaos. It’s a space made for connection, whether that means losing yourself on the dancefloor or finding a quiet moment in the crowd. The lineup reads like an underground manifesto: Load, Riri, Bunnyman, Celsior and Madman – all names synonymous with nights that refuse to fade quietly. Jun 14. B300 via here and B500 at the door. Siwilai Radical Club, 10pm onwards

Born in Khourigba, raised in Turin, Munir Nadir’s musical story begins with percussion at 14 and veers into DJing two years later, spinning at clubs before most teenagers are allowed entry. By 2013, he’d found a home behind the decks at Outcast, laying the groundwork for a style that refuses to stay in one lane. House, breakbeat, techno – he threads them with an instinct that’s less curated setlist, more shared pulse. There’s no gimmickry here, just groove, restraint and the occasional flicker of chaos. He’s played KappaFuturFestival and Unum, but the real story unfolds in his studio, where recent years have seen releases on Nugs of Board, Elephant Moon, and Outcast Planet. On the night, support comes from DJ Kunanon and Jirus – two selectors who understand that sometimes the most interesting thing in the room isn’t the drop, but the silence just before it. Jun 14. B400-600 via here and B800 at the door. Bar Temp., 9pm onwards

Somewhere between caffeine jitters and a slow-building bassline, sawasdeecup.coffeeparty takes over Songwat Road with the kind of chaotic precision only this city could host. It’s not quite a rave, not exactly brunch – more like a caffeine-fuelled fever dream stretched across a single, sun-bleached street. More than five venues and more than ten DJ decks. Just a vague promise that the music won’t stop and neither will the coffee. The dress code is simple: sunglasses. Not for style, but necessity. Because here, under the glare of Bangkok’s early heat, with beats ricocheting off concrete and espresso shots doubling as currency, reality blurs just enough to feel mythic. It’s a day that begins like a joke – coffee and DJs walk into a street – and ends as a memory you’ll swear you hallucinated. Jun 14. Free. Songwat Road, midday-8pm

Forget the tasting notes and tequila cliches – this isn’t your average dinner pairing. Jhol Bangkok plays host to a one-night-only experiment in excess, flavour and heat, as it joins forces with Maya Pistola Agavepura, the Goan spirit quietly rewriting the rules of agave. Pistola doesn’t shout – it simmers. Aged, nuanced, and designed to speak to both local palates and global ambitions, it’s the kind of drink that doesn’t need defending. Behind the bar, Natkrit Chatsakpairach (fresh off his win at Pistola Duels 2.0) curates a cocktail menu that reads more like a love affair – tropical sharpness, warm spice, the occasional flirt with sweetness. Each drink lands alongside dishes that don’t so much complement as provoke. Jun 14. Starts at B1,699. Reserve via 091-704-5724 and [email protected]. JHOL, 5.30pm-6.30pm (one seating) and 9.45pm onwards (two seatings)

Scrubb has always been more feeling than formula – music that lingers in the in-between. Sense of SCRUBB is an exhibition that attempts to capture this atmosphere without relying on sound alone. It opens with delicate works on canvas and clay, fragments offered up by artists who’ve sat with the band’s music long enough to translate it visually. Then come the words – short stories and poems penned by fellow musicians, tucked with half-remembered nights and soft melancholies. There’s even a scent, faint and fleeting, crafted to recall melody without needing to name it. Visitors are invited to speak too, to voice what Scrubb stirs in them. But the real question sits quietly behind it all – how do others see this band, and what does that reflection reveal? Intimate, unfussy, the exhibition closes with a casual talk session featuring Ball and Muey, surrounded by the art they inspired without ever having to ask for it. Jun 13-Aug 12. Free. MMAD - MunMun Art Destination, 10.30am-7pm

There’s a particular weight to music born in Detroit – something about grit and soul, looped through machinery. A founding figure of Slum Village and a close conspirator of J Dilla, he’s carried that lineage into his own genre-defiant orbit, folding house, funk and hip-hop into something both urgent and unpolished. Now, in a rare hybrid live set, he steps into BEAMCUBE with the kind of sonic intent that doesn’t pander or explain itself. Think cracked vinyl layered over industrial pulse, a meditation and a demand in one breath. Before that, Maarten sets the tone. A stalwart of Bangkok’s underground, he’s known for slipping seamlessly between decks and hardware, mood and mayhem. This isn’t just a night out – it’s a recalibration. A reminder that sound doesn’t have to be neat to be unforgettable. Jun 13. B400 via here and B600 at the door. BEAM, 9pm onwards

Kiss Nuka doesn’t so much perform as conjure. The Mumbai-based producer and visual artist threads together tribal percussion, deep basslines and eerie, cinematic visuals to create a world that feels both ancient and apocalyptic. Her shows are ritualistic, urgent, sweaty; Glastonbury, DGTL and Magnetic Fields have all felt the throb of her vision. Dance of the Ravens – part battle cry, part exorcism – was rightly named one of Mixmag Asia’s best tracks of 2024. Sharing the bill is Australia’s FUKHED, a creature of late-night euphoria and controlled chaos. Her sets, veering between abandon and precision, have lit up Field Day and Beyond the Valley. No C No A and 4303 are less songs than adrenaline hits – shards of sound that linger long after the lights go up. Jun 12. B500 via here. Blaq Lyte Rover, 9pm onwards

At Ms.Jigger, lunch isn’t just a break in the day – it’s a curated escape, reimagined through the ‘Pranzo Perfetto’ experience. Let’s begin with the star: weekend lunches. Served from 11:30am to 5:00pm, the set menu is accompanied by a generous spread of free-flow antipasti – an unfiltered celebration of Italian flavor. Expect bruschetta, marinated olives, seabass carpaccio and golden fried dough balls glazed with tomato and anchovy. Focaccia arrives warm and unapologetically indulgent, filled with mortadella and mascarpone. This is a leisurely interlude – a stylish Italian affair that’s perfectly designed to sabotage your dinner plans. Prices start at B950 and B1,050 for the weekend set lunch with antipasti. During the week, weekday lunches offer a shorter, yet no less satisfying, detour into Italian comfort. Served from 11:30am to 2:30pm. Think beef carpaccio with rocket and parmesan, or citrus-cured salmon dotted with balsamic caviar, followed by mains like wagyu fettuccine, wood-fired pizza or a rustic Luganega sausage that hardly needs the side of mash. At B750 for two courses and B850 for three, it’s a surprisingly affordable luxury. Everyday. Starts at B750. Reserve via 02-056-9999 and [email protected] or via Line @Ms.Jigger. Ms.Jigger, Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok, 11.30pm-5pm

Ten years in, Thailand 420 is taking its final bow – not quietly, but with the kind of chaotic grace only a rooftop in Bangkok could host. It’s a farewell stitched together with basslines, incense trails and the soft shuffle of sandals on concrete. Three stages pulse with conflicting intentions: one leans heavy on the drop, another prefers groove, the last feels like an afterthought until suddenly it isn’t. Between them, there’s a sprawl of stalls offering grilled things on sticks, handmade ashtrays, iced drinks in plastic cups and the occasional conversation that turns unexpectedly philosophical. It’s a celebration, yes, but also a strange little ritual. One last exhale. One long glance back. And somewhere amid the music and haze, a sense that even endings can feel a bit like beginnings – just slightly more bittersweet. Jun 14-15. B890 via here. JJ Mall, 4pm-midnight

There’s a certain daring in how Millennials Flex approach the world – bending and breaking the rules not just to rebel but to remake. It’s a mindset that doesn’t just accept pain but wears it like a badge, turning vulnerability into something visible and vital. Old myths, inherited traditions and history aren’t relics to be preserved untouched. Instead, they become raw material, chopped up and stitched into fresh stories that speak to now. It’s an art of reinvention, where mistakes aren’t failures but lessons, and the familiar is endlessly transformed. This isn’t nostalgia or rejection – it's a restless, vibrant conversation with the past, a refusal to be boxed in by what came before and a celebration of what might come next. Until Jun 28. Free. 6060 Arts Space, midday-8pm

Bangkok doesn’t do quiet, it hums, honks, pulses. Even its silences come laced with static. Which is why the BOTLC Book Fair feels almost suspiciously serene. From July 16-20 at 10am-6.30pm, the Bank of Thailand Learning Centre – all clean lines and soft light – becomes a kind of sanctuary for the overstimulated. Tucked beside the Chao Phraya, it offers not just books but the rarest thing of all: a pause. This isn’t your average fairground frenzy. No jostling, no soundtrack engineered to keep you moving. Instead, it’s slow: a page turned, a thought held, a breeze that actually matters. You can wander through tables of titles without pressure, eavesdrop on a panel, then drift outside to sit with something dog-eared and deeply yours. There’ll be workshops, music, food if you need it – but the real draw is the rhythm, unhurried, unbothered. Because yes, you’ll find books – but you’ll also find space – space to browse, to breathe,  to sit with a novel by the water and forget your phone exists. Here’s how it unfolds Book fair – Not just a shopping spree. It’s a curated sprawl of publishers, obscure titles, and enough paperbacks to make your tote bag ache in the best way. Book talk – Authors step into the spotlight, joined by influencers who know their Baldwin from their Barthes. Book walk – A wander through the Bank of Thailand Museum’s collection of currency, stitched with stories more telling than any economics textbook. Book sharing – Bring a book, take a book, leave a piece o

HONNE’s music has always lived somewhere between a late-night phone call and the tail end of a long drive – comforting, a bit bittersweet, slightly blurred at the edges. On July 27 the British electro-soul duo – best known for hits like ‘Day 1,’ ‘Location Unknown’ and ‘No Song Without You’ – return to Bangkok, a city they’ve long held a quiet affection for, as part of The OUCH Tour. The venue is True Icon Hall, a cavernous space tucked inside Iconsiam’s polished seventh floor. Their return isn't without drama. The initial flicker of excitement arrived not from a press release or even a teaser video, but from a poster – illustrated in syrupy pastel tones, featuring their OUCH Boy mascot cradling a plate of mango sticky rice. A love letter in carbohydrates, if you will. It’s absurd, and kind of moving. This time around, HONNE won’t be alone on stage. BOWKYLION, Thailand’s melancholic pop heroine, joins them for the night – her voice the sonic equivalent of a cracked mirror or a sigh you didn’t mean to let slip. Now, if their tracks already live among your favourites or you’re simply curious, take this as your signal to save the date – here’s what to keep in mind before the evening begins.  When are HONNE playing at Bangkok’s True Icon Hall? HONNE are playing in Bangkok on Sunday, July 27.    What are the timings? Doors to the venue will open at 7pm. The show is set to start around 8pm and wrap up around 10.30pm.    What’s the setlist? There is no official setlist, so all will b

Every summer solstice, France does something utterly un-French: it drops its cool, steps into the street and makes noise. Fête de la Musique – or World Music Day, if you prefer things literal – is an annual invitation to play, sing, stumble through a half-forgotten guitar riff and call it culture. It began in 1982, when someone at the French Ministry of Culture decided that the longest day of the year should sound like it too. Since then, it has ballooned into a global phenomenon, travelling across time zones and borders, settling into over 120 countries with the quiet insistence of a chorus line. In Thailand, a place where volume is rarely an issue, the festival will hit Bangkok this June 14 with Bangkok World Music Day ‘25 – held at One Bangkok a world-class lifestyle destination in the heart of Bangkok’ at the intersection of Rama IV Road and Wireless Road, where shopping, business – and now, apparently music and culture– collide. The fun also stretches to Alliance Française Bangkok The festival goes across the venues, each tuned to a different frequency and offering something for every kind of listener. Of course – it’s entirely free.  And for those in the mood to take home a souvenir, check out the flea market packed with quirky, fun finds.   Here are the highlights from each stage / zone :  One Bangkok Park presents Thai and international artists across various music genres: - Réjizz (17.15 – 17.45 hrs.) - Venn (18.15 – 18.45 hrs.) - KIKI (19.15 – 19.45 hrs.) - Paradis

If you’ve not been keeping up, Fred again – born Fred Gibson – is one of those names that’s quietly everywhere. Maybe you’ve heard his voice layered into a track without knowing it. Maybe you’ve danced to one of his edits at 3am and only clocked it days later. He’s a producer, vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist – a modern-day polymath with a sampler and a keen ear for emotion. Now, following the announcement of his solo Asia tour, he’s set to bring that instinct centre stage. Stops include South Korea, Singapore and, yes, Bangkok. At the core of his work is a kind of sonic diarising: voice notes from friends, fleeting conversations, fragments of lived experience turned into dancefloor elegies. His tracks – leave me alone, Turn On The Lights again.., Rumble – feel as much like personal memos as they do chart staples. This is a man who once won two Grammys for Actual Life 3 and still manages to make music that sounds like it was recorded in the Notes app at 2am. Photograph: fredagainagainagainagainagain And then there are the collaborators. The list reads like a who's who of genre-defying innovators: Skrillex, Baby Keem, Skepta, Future, Anderson .Paak, Four Tet. He moves between worlds – rap, house, garage, glitch – with the kind of fluidity that doesn’t beg attention but earns it. He’s not selling nostalgia, nor spectacle. What he offers is something quieter but stickier: intimacy in high definition, connection disguised as club music. He’ll be at UOB LIVE on July 2

In an industry increasingly obsessed with noise – louder beats, higher drama, algorithm-friendly hooks – Summer Salt have carved out a quiet, persistent corner of calm. The American indie pop band, never ones to shout for attention, have instead built their following with soft-focus melodies and a kind of emotional precision that resists easy categorisation. While others chase virality, they remain content with something far less fleeting: warmth, wistfulness, the kind of tune that lingers like a half-remembered summer. Now, they’re bringing that sensibility back to Bangkok. On September 7 at The Street Hall, the band will perform a mix of favourites – ‘Candy Wrappers’, ‘Sweet to Me’, ‘One Last Time’ – along with unreleased material that suggests their sentimental palette is far from running dry. Photograph: Summer Salt Their music, a mellow blend of oldies and bossa nova influences, doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel so much as cruise gently alongside it. It’s made for long car rides and quiet mornings, for coffees gone cold and beaches at low tide. Listening feels less like discovery and more like recognition – as if you’ve heard it before, maybe in a dream. If their songs are already tucked between your favourites or you’re just a little intrigued, consider this your cue to mark the date – here’s what to know before the night unfolds.   When are Summer Salt performing in Bangkok? Summer Salt will grace the stage in Bangkok for a single-night show on Sunday September 7 at

In the food and beverage world, it’s not just what ends up on the plate or cup – it’s the power plays behind the packaging, the flavour trends dressed up as lifestyle ideologies, the supply chains zigzagging across continents. In Bangkok, the act of eating is always loaded, whether it’s a streetside bowl of noodles or a deal sealed over coconut milk lattes.  So when THAIFEX – ANUGA ASIA made its annual return from May 27-31, it wasn’t merely another entry in the events calendar. It was a billboard for where the industry is headed. One part trade show, two parts economic choreography, the 2025 edition arrived with the energy of possibility – transforming the city’s steel and glass into a playground for culinary futures. The name might suggest something cinematic, but in reality, it’s where the brightest minds in food come together to shape what – and how – the world eats next. Photograph: THAIFEX – ANUGA ASIA Now in its 2025 edition, the event doubled down on its reputation as Asia-Pacific’s command centre for all things edible. Yet this year, the energy felt different – more trends, more transformation, more impact for a better food future. Asia-Pacific’s most influential F&B gathering has long been a place for people who think about food as more than sustenance. This year, it leaned further into that ambition, showcasing how eating has become an act of innovation, identity and even ideology. The geography of taste If borders are imaginary lines, this event blurred them ent

In the pre-dawn hours of group chats and Twitter threads, Thai BLINKs are once again bracing themselves – emotionally, spiritually, logistically – for the arrival of Blackpink. The quartet will return to Bangkok this October for a three-night stand at Rajamangala National Stadium, as part of their forthcoming Deadline World Tour.  This isn't their first dance with the Thai capital, nor is it likely to be their last. Promoted by Live Nation Tero, the concerts coincide with a long holiday weekend, prompting a flurry of hotel bookings, outfit planning and increasingly unhinged speculation about surprise guests. Most of the excitement, naturally, centres on Lalisa ‘Lisa’ Manobal – the group's Thai-born polymath whose very existence on home turf tends to spark a national mood shift. The numbers are already dizzying. Their previous tour – 2022–23’s Born Pink – attracted more than 1.8 million people across the globe, shattering records and redefining what a girl group could achieve on a stadium stage. It wasn’t so much a series of concerts as a cultural phenomenon. The Deadline tour seems poised to go even further, not least because Blackpink are no longer just a band – they are a symbol, a litmus test, a global export. If you’re planning to secure a seat – or a pit wristband – here’s everything you need to know about the girl group, from the dates and when general sale goes live to pricing. When is Blackpink’s world tour in Bangkok? They’re set to return to Rajamangala National Sta

Once a fleeting five-day escape in December, Wonderfruit has steadily grown into something far less seasonal and far more structural. What began as a festival of art, music, food and ideas now finds itself maturing – ten years on – not just in scale but in sensibility. Returning this year fo its 10th anniversary, it doesn’t so much arrive as it expands, evolving from an annual gathering into a full-bodied cultural platform that stretches beyond its original five-day frame. This year, the language has shifted. Wonderfruit is no longer content with being a destination on the calendar; it’s positioning itself as a continuous conversation, one that unfolds throughout the year in various forms – installations, workshops, residencies and quiet provocations. Photograph: Wonderfruit Looking forward to this year’s music spectacle in Thailand? Here’s everything you need to know about Wonderfruit 2025, including set times, ticket prices and travel details.    When and where is Wonderfruit? Wonderfruit returns for its tenth year from December 11-15 at Siam Country Club in Pattaya, Chonburi. The site is around a 30-minute drive from central Pattaya and approximately 150 kilometres, or two to three hours from Bangkok. Timings Gates open at midday, but your arrival time might depend on the type of ticket you hold. Keep in mind that the Main Gate and Box Office don’t operate around the clock – if you turn up after midnight, you won’t be allowed in until they reopen at 8am. When do Wonderfr

In the hush of Bangkok’s Phaya Thai district, the Asvin building holds its breath. Once the headquarters of Asvin Pictures Co., Ltd., it now cradles something else – something that murmurs instead of shouts. Octave Maze Asvin Collection by Wit Pimkanchanapong returns to this charged space, rethreading the needle of memory, film and sound. If February’s iteration, first unveiled during Bangkok Design Week, was the prelude, this is the fuller movement. Running from May 15-August 31, Pimkanchanapong’s latest venture is less sequel, more echo. It deepens its dialogue with the original installation, not by glossing it over with polish, but by slipping further into the cracks: layering context, summoning ghosts, listening to what walls might say if they could still speak. Here, featured tracks in this iteration include ‘Bua Khao’, ‘Nai Fan’, ‘Ploen’, ‘Lom Huan’, ‘Wan Phen’, ‘Dok Mai’, ‘Ruean Pae’ and ‘Hak Roo Sak Nit’. Each melody a fragment of a vanished world, each note a memory unspooling at its own pace. Photograph: asvinbangkok It is not a show in the usual sense. There are no plinths, no spotlighted statements. Instead, you move through it, or it moves through you. The architecture becomes score, your footsteps the rhythm, the air around you thick with ‘Lom Huan’ and ‘Dok Mai’. Each track unravels part of Asvin’s past – a studio born mid-century, swept into nostalgia and neglect, now pulsing softly back to life. Visitors are offered a slow, deliberate kind of looking and li

In a city where wellness is often synonymous with fluorescent-lit gyms or overpriced smoothies, an open-air park on Banthat Thong Road is offering something different: a weekend where health doesn’t come in a bottle, but in the form of second-hand denim, vegan curry and guided self-reflection. On May 24-25 from 10.30am-8.30pm, Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park hosts a free gathering that falls somewhere between a sustainability fair and a collective existential check-in. Organised by Vtopia, a group advocating for plant-based living, alongside Loopers, a platform for second-hand fashion. Food stalls sling drinks made with oat milk so velvety they might briefly repair your relationship with your parents. Goodmate is offering those. Then there’s POHSOP, an outfit slinging meat-free comfort food with the kind of deliberate cosiness usually reserved for rainy afternoons and existential doubt. Elsewhere, there are cafes for caffeine-dependent introspection, plus what appears to be a minor army of lifestyle vendors, all ready to tell you how a scented candle can fix your soul (or at least your condo). Photograph: soulfood.goodlife Still, the most quietly intense feature may be a workshop called Satir Iceberg Workshop, led by a coach trained in the Satir method – a therapeutic approach so niche that fewer than thirty people in Thailand are certified in it. Participants are encouraged to plumb the murky depths of childhood, internalised shame and whatever else might be crowdi

At Cannes this year, the applause was not just loud – it was seismic. A Useful Ghost, the feature debut by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, emerged from the Critics’ Week sidebar with the Grand Prize AMI Paris in hand. It’s the sort of win that quietly shifts things. Not only for the filmmaker, or for 185 Films, the Thai production house behind it, but for an entire region still largely overlooked in the palmares of European festivals. Only once before has an ASEAN film claimed this prize – Malaysia’s Tiger Stripes in 2023 – which makes A Useful Ghost the second, and possibly the strangest. The story opens with March, grieving the sudden death of his wife, Nat, who succumbed to dust pollution. Soon, he discovers her spirit has returned – in the body of a vacuum cleaner. As he navigates this surreal reunion, his mother’s factory is beset by another ghost, this time a disgruntled labourer who brings operations to a halt. The family, already unsettled, rejects Nat’s lingering presence. But she, determined and oddly practical, offers to exorcise the workplace in exchange for being acknowledged – not just as a ghost, but as a partner. It’s part satire, part seance, and entirely sincere in its portrayal of loss and cohabitation. Photograph: A Useful Ghost Photograph: A Useful Ghost Critics’ Week, dedicated to first and second-time directors, has always been where oddball gems surface. Yet Thai cinema’s presence here has been sporadic. It’s been a decade since Apichatpong Weerasetha

If you’ve ever hesitated to take your pet with you on a trip, the Red Line electric train is quietly rewriting the rules. Previously, furry friends were only allowed on board during weekends, making weekday travel something of a logistical headache for devoted owners. But from June 1, this changes entirely.  The city’s commuter rail now welcomes animals every day, inviting owners to bring their four-legged (cats and dogs only) companions to travel absolutely free of charge. Whether it’s a leisurely outing or a vet appointment, the service is a small but significant gesture towards making urban travel more inclusive – and a little less stressful.  Of course, this new pet-friendly policy isn’t a free-for-all. There are clear guidelines to keep everyone safe and comfortable.   Conditions: Pets must have valid identification documents – no exceptions. Passengers with animals are limited to the CARI carriage only, keeping everyone comfortable. Each person may bring one pet only, ensuring space and order on board. Animals must stay inside fully enclosed carriers with secure mesh ventilation, allowing them to see out without escaping. The train operator does not accept liability for any accidents or injuries involving pets – responsibility lies with the owner. Pet travel hours: Monday to Friday.5.30am-6.30am10am-5pm9pm-midnight Saturday, Sunday and public holidays.5.30am-midnight It’s an encouraging step forward, an understated celebration of companionship amid the city’s pulse.